and transported to camps in Greece with his wife and child,
but the child died in Thessaloniki (Salonica).//
Greek soldiers with local Bursa children in front of the Bursa
municipal building in March 1922. The Turkish Army
liberated Bursa on 11 September 1922.
Captain Tahir Nadi’s Statement:
A number of soldiers from the entourage of Gendarmerie
Commander
Papaerki raided my house on 29 August 1922 and without letting me get
dressed – I was taken in my nightshirt – I was brought to the occupation
command office. Without saying a word,
the chief of staff beat me
continually for four hours and then I was thrown in
the basement. I
stayed there for 4 days
without food or water and I was prevented from
sleeping as they chanted “we
will take you for execution”.
On the
fourth day, when I was brought to the Gendarmerie office I
found my wife there
with our 6-month-old child in her lap.
Three
women and their children, who lived in the same house as us, were
brought, as well. After we were each
interrogated for hours, they
took me to
the Tahtakale medrese (religious school in Bursa).
The degradation and the rifle butt blows inflicted
by the Greek soldiers
I encountered along the way and in the custody house in were
beyond
unbearable. 28 people, who like me had been condemned to
death,
were stuffed into a room that could accommodate 5. Then I was stripped.
The day I was removed from the dungeon my
arms were tightly bound
and I was included with about 800 others, who were all bound, in front
of the old
government house. I was at the head of
the column, naked and
barefooted, and my wife, with the child in her arms
although they were
bound, and a sack under her arm, was at the back of the
column.
We walked until morning and came
to Mudanya, where we boarded onto
a ship.
We were prodded by rifle butts into the holds and the hatches
were
shut. The interior of the ship was as
hot as Kerbela and a glass of
water cost 25 francs. I was little more than a skeleton when I set
foot on
land at Salonica. We were
transported to Profit İliya Prison. While I was
kept naked and manacled in
misery in this new prison, my wife could
not bear the hardship and difficulties so she was put in a hospital. My
child was turned over to the Islamic
Community for care.
The day after we
were transported to the Beyaz Kale (White Fortress), it
was made known that we
would go to Athens. I had to find out
about the
condition of my wife and son. When the response I received was “your
wife has yellow fever. We will send her
later.”, I resisted the order and
was put in with 30 other people, whose cases
would be heard over there.
The White Fortress of Thessaloniki
(Salonica)
A week after
the prisoners were moved I learned that my child had died.
My appeal to attend his funeral was
denied. One day, together with my
wife
and 3 others, we were put into a freight train wagon and transported
to Larrisa. When the prisoner officers at the garrison
there saw my
wife’s desperate condition they contacted the Larissa muftu
(Moslem
religious leader) and he signed as a guarantor so she could be moved to
his house. The situation of the soldiers
held prisoner there was quite
deplorable.
They were continually beaten in the stables where they
were housed. They were degraded and transported to work at
forced
labor from morning till evening.
There were those who died from the
blows they suffered.
The writer and his ill wife were transported by train from
Thessaloniki to Larissa (red dot).
//END of PART XIII//
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